ONTARIO >> Winter Jam 2013, featuring some of Christian music’s top artists, is a touring music festival with plenty of spirit.

“Winter Jam is very eclectic,” said Tenth Avenue North drummer Jason Jamisonw. “Maybe someone who’s never dabbled in Christian music, I think would be surprised to see a lot of different types of music.”

“There are worship elements and worship moments,” he said. “You get to see a cool spectrum of what Christian music has to offer. We’re not doing this to make our name great, we’re doing this to make Jesus’ name great.”

Jamison, whose group is promoting its album “The Struggle,” said the artists enjoy the shows as much as fans.

“For me, with Winter Jam, the performance aspect is going to be a lot of fun,” Jamison said. “You play in front of a sold-out arena. Even in 20 or 25 minutes, that’s an incredible feeling.”

Newsboys bassist Jeff Frankenstein said Winter Jam is a time to make friends and enjoy the show.

“With 10 bands on the road together for that long you definitely meet a lot of good friends,” Frankenstein said.

Frankenstein said songs from the pop rock group’s latest album “Restart,” which was released on Sept. 10, will be played during the show.

“I rank records by how many new songs we play in the set that people enjoy,” Frankenstein said. “The cool thing is we’re playing eight new songs and all is going really well. To me that’s always the good sign of a good record.”

Singer Michael Tait, formerly of Grammy-winning Christian hip-hop and alternative group D.C. Talk, has brought change to the Newsboys, Frankenstein said. Previously, the group featured singer Peter Furler before Tait joined in 2009.

“Adding Michael, a world-class singer, has added a different dimension to the band,” Frankenstein said. “For a year or two where it was kind of difficult, he would show up to festivals and a lot of fans didn’t know there was a change. Christian music is a smaller industry … but the fans have spoken and they’re really digging what’s happening. People come to our shows and don’t remember our lives without Michael, or we get fans from the last three or four years and Michael is the only lead singer they’ve known.”

“It’s funny, a lot of times we do get that question from fans at a Newsboys show, and I say ‘Thanks a lot, guys, for putting my job security in jeopardy,’” he said, laughing. “It’s obviously kicking around in the back of our minds.”

After some maybes and probablys, Frankenstein eventually conceded: “It’s definitely inevitable it will happen eventually.”